Lisa (BLACKPINK) wishes everyone a happy new year, but causes backlash just because of one extremely sensitive sentence

Lisa's Chinese New Year greetings have sparked heated debate on social media. Many viewers say she is culturally insensitive and flattering Chinese fans.

Specifically, in a livestream video on January 27, Lisa ( BLACKPINK) sent New Year greetings on the occasion of Lunar New Year. When prompted by the staff outside, the 9X female singer mentioned "Lunar New Year" on the live broadcast, then surprised many fans by concluding with the greeting "Happy Chinese Lunar New Year".

The video was immediately shared at a dizzying speed on social networks. Under the clip, many netizens strongly condemned Lisa because they thought that the female singer had acted insensitively towards audiences in some Asian countries. According to these audiences, Lunar New Year is a cultural feature in many East Asian countries, not just in China. In addition, with Lisa sending greetings for the Chinese Lunar New Year instead of wishing Happy New Year, many netizens thought that the female idol was biased towards fans of the billion-people country. This move of the female idol received great attention from the Chinese fan community, because she was banned from broadcasting in the billion-people country after her performance at the Crazy Horse club 2 years ago. Many netizens also questioned whether Lisa wanted to flatter Chinese fans and return to this market to operate.

Some fans defended Lisa by saying "Happy Lunar New Year" before sending her Chinese Lunar New Year greetings. But netizens countered that the female idol only said "Lunar New Year" after being reminded by the staff.

Remember 2 years ago, Danielle (NewJeans) was heavily criticized for the same reason. At that time, the mixed-race idol suddenly asked a question while interacting with fans on a chat app: "What are you Bunnies (name of the NewJeans fan community) doing during Chinese New Year?".

In response to the wave of anger from audiences in many Asian countries, Danielle had to apologize: "Lunar New Year is a big holiday in many countries and territories. Therefore, my expression was inappropriate. I apologize to the fans who were hurt or disappointed by my recent actions."

Why does controversy occur?

"Happy lunar new year" is a more universal and neutral way of wishing because Lunar New Year is not only a Chinese festival but is also celebrated in many other Asian countries, such as Vietnam (Tet), Korea (Seollal), Mongolia (Tsagaan Sar) and Singapore.

This nomenclature avoids equating Lunar New Year with Chinese culture, especially since countries have distinct histories, customs, and traditions related to the holiday.

From a cultural identity perspective, Vietnamese, Koreans and other countries do not want to be "assimilated" culturally through the term "Chinese lunar new year", believing that Lunar New Year is an indispensable part of national identity.

Many Westerners tend to associate the lunar calendar with China because of its great influence. This leads to the misconception that Lunar New Year is only related to China.

To avoid controversy, many celebrities often use "Happy Lunar New Year", because this term is more neutral and encompasses all cultures that celebrate Lunar New Year.

Lisa (born 1997) was born and raised in Thailand but started her career in Korea. She joined YG Entertainment (Korea) at the age of 14 after winning a rigorous audition.

In 2006, she officially debuted in the Korean entertainment industry as a member of the group Blackpink. After 8 years of working, Blackpink has become one of the most successful and famous girl groups in Korea.

Lisa herself has many outstanding achievements in her career, she is a successful face in music and fashion. The Thai star is an ambassador for fashion brand Celine, jewelry brand Bulgari, and cosmetics brand MAC Cosmetics.

Despite her young age, Lisa has achieved a lot of success in her career. In 2023, she was recognized by the online music streaming app Spotify as the first Kpop artist (Korean youth music) to reach 1 billion listens on Spotify for the song Money.

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